International Online Training Program On Intractable
Conflict

Technical Primers

We live in an extremely complicated world in which it is impossible for average
citizens or even government leaders to fully comprehend the technical aspects of
many public policy issues they need to address.. As a result, both decision makers and the
public have to rely upon experts to tell them what the problems are and what
solutions are likely to work best.. Without such expert analysis, the parties are doomed
to make bad decisions because they simply don't understand the situation. Still, in most
cases, it is not appropriate to turn decisions over to the experts. While experts can tell
the parties what will happen if they do various things, it is the parties' (or the
decision makers') responsibility to decide what it is that they want to happen.

To use technical information effectively, technical primers are needed for explaining
the essential elements of technical issues to interest group leaders, decision makers, and
the general public. This requires an ability to distinguish what is truly important from
unimportant technical details. It also requires an ability to explain concepts in ways
which non-technical readers can understand. In addition to technical skills, this requires
an ability to overcome basic communication problems as well. Also critical are credibility-building programs to assure that the explanations are
both trusted and worthy of the public's trust.

Links to Examples:

This article explains that the public assesses risk and uncertainty very differently
from experts. It then suggests ways in which risk can be explained to the public so
that they can make informed decisions.

This article illustrates several innovative ways to make complex information more easily
understandable to non-scientists.